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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28951299">A Fool's Fool</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/platonicharmonics/pseuds/platonicharmonics'>platonicharmonics</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cheesiness, Cuddling &amp; Snuggling, Hypothermia, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Pre-Video Game: Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018), Self-Indulgent, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Trans Man Hosea Matthews, Trans man Dutch van der Linde, Young Dutch van der Linde, Young Hosea Matthews, smooches</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:42:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,887</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28951299</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/platonicharmonics/pseuds/platonicharmonics</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In the safe remoteness of the East Grizzlies, romance blooms on a mountain trail... only to then be doused in freezing rapids.</p><p>OR:</p><p>Hosea kisses Dutch and has regrets.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hosea Matthews/Dutch van der Linde</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Fool's Fool</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><b>Content Warning</b> for <b>near-drowning</b>, <b>near-hypothermia</b>, and a very very brief vague drive-by of <b>body dysphoria.</b></p><p>Based off of a True Story between me and my partner [sage nodding]</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The braying call of an elk echoed through the valley, overlapping slightly with the soaring cry of an eagle overhead, ringing out through the sapphire sky that arced over rocky forests of pines and aspens and other conifers as wildflowers fluttered in the spring breeze, dancing with their blades of emerald grass alongside the trail of rich dark mulch. The river that harshly cut itself through the land, pouring down from the melting of nearby snowy peaks, hissed and bubbled and sloshed in its rapids that chased the trail down towards the distant plains a hundred miles south, an ever-constant companion that roared so mildly it became a gentle whisper.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dutch couldn’t help but close his eyes and take in a long, deep breath of the air in this free and wild land after he’d satisfactorily memorized it with his eyes, letting the cool sharp mountain air filter through his sinuses to glide down his windpipe and swirl through his lungs, bringing with it all the scents of cool fresh water and pine and pollen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He sneezed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cute.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dutch opened his eyes and shook himself, turning to fix his riding companion with a withering glare as the blonde man smirked at him from under his hat, its brim criminally blocking the golden sunlight from provoking the same gold to shimmer in his hazel irises, but even the shade couldn’t fully abscond with their wonder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dutch felt heat rise to his face and fixed his hat, resituating himself in his saddle in a way that was </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>a squirm. “I ain’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>cute,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> he gruffed, puffing up his chest and turning his gaze carefully away to instead stare at the white foam of the river where it crashed and swirled beside them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You keep saying that, but it ain’t stopping me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re going soft, Hosea.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You make me soft.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The statement was so plain, so simple, yet rang with such </span>
  <em>
    <span>truth </span>
  </em>
  <span>that Dutch found his eyes rejoined with his partner’s before a thought could even sail across the rolling ocean of his mind. He searched the depths of those eyes for any sign of jest or sarcasm - both old and familiar tools that rolled off of that silver tongue - but Hosea tilting his chin up to lift the shelter of shadow obscuring his eyes instead swathed them in glittering light, shining only because the man’s eyes were open in soft earnestness. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dutch tightened his hands into a white-knuckled grip around Empress’s reins and felt the heat in his face increase, surely painting him a ruddy rose as he ducked his head and hunched down, reaching out to swat at his partner in a swipe of air that missed him by a good two feet. “This ain’t my Hosea,” he hedged. “What’s gotten into you? Where’s that crotchedy old girl who tells me to ‘shut up’ every time I breathe a single word of praise at you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hosea’s smirk softened into a coy, alluring thing, and Dutch had to look away again as his heart skipped a beat. He merely listened as that rich dry tenor drawled, “I’m having a good day.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dutch’s bay mare turned her head to eye him, understandably concerned by the way Dutch tensed up in the saddle. “You saying every other day’s a bad day?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A hefty sigh gusted from his left. “Oh, you know what I mean.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know no mood where you get all schmoopy on me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“‘Cause </span>
  <em>
    <span>you’re</span>
  </em>
  <span> too busy </span>
  <em>
    <span>schmooping</span>
  </em>
  <span> on </span>
  <em>
    <span>me.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Dutch glanced at him and pouted. Hosea responded by chuckling, a gentle, ringing thing, and the man guided his palomino gelding closer to reach his hand out and steal Dutch’s hand from the reins with as much deft gentle precision as they had when they stole food from Dutch’s satchel on the road to Chicago. Those strong, slender fingers folding and sliding around the flesh of his wrist to settle their pads on his fluttering pulseline made him purge the tension in his body with a shiver as his eyes, ever magnetized to that sacred amber, slid back to those agates bearing all the colors of a Western sunrise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A shallow analysis of the man riding beside him would conclude that he was not a romantic. Hosea himself, ever the master of shallowly serveilling the surface of his own heart, stated that declaration enough times. Dutch knew better. Had </span>
  <em>
    <span>learned </span>
  </em>
  <span>better. At first, the stark and cold contrast of Hosea’s distance and hesitance juxtaposed against Dutch’s reverent worship and grand gestures at the start of their relationship slid together about as well as a banged elbow against a saddlehorn. Dutch was left constantly asking for validation and verification in return of his yearning for romance, whereas Hosea was constantly freezing up and leaning away and murmuring such phrases like </span>
  <em>
    <span>“You’re embarrassing yourself”</span>
  </em>
  <span> and </span>
  <em>
    <span>“Don’t be a fool,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> like a wildfire trying to lick its way onto a lake.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As it turned out, Hosea’s romance was simply </span>
  <em>
    <span>quiet,</span>
  </em>
  <span> spoken in a different language that Dutch had to learn second from his own. There was a weariness woven into Hosea’s nerves chiseled by the blows of hammers Dutch was lucky to have never known, making Hosea closed-off and conscious of every touch, every gesture, every word or look exchanged in any space he deemed </span>
  <em>
    <span>insecure </span>
  </em>
  <span>- which turned out to be most places. Hosea was a man of walls and shields and permafrost, constantly on the defensive against spectres Dutch could not see. But when Hosea felt </span>
  <em>
    <span>safe…</span>
  </em>
  <span> when they were shrouded in the privacy of darkness and canvas, or the secure shelter of four walls, or the ringing quiet in the aftermath of gunfire where all life had been snuffed out save for their two flickering souls… then Hosea expressed his romance in the language of his hands, in the press of his forehead, in the soft press of his lips or breathed words of praise that sometimes bordered on prayer. Hosea’s romance was not that of books or songs - it was a deep and ancient thing, something that Dutch suspected had been lost in the shackles formed between </span>
  <em>
    <span>men </span>
  </em>
  <span>and </span>
  <em>
    <span>wives.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>This desolate trail in the mountains of the East Grizzlies, so unused that it was consumed entirely by grass in some spots, seemed to be a place that Hosea deemed </span>
  <em>
    <span>safe.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>A slow smile grew on Dutch’s face like the blooming of a daffodil. With a suppressed giggle, he sweetly said, “I’ll be quiet, if there’s more of that softness where that came from.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hosea’s hand squeezed his wrist one last time before he grabbed his reins and straightened up, a warm and gentle expression on his face making his brow crease and the corners of his mouth ease upwards. “I think I may have a little something.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dutch barely managed to form an “Oh?” before Hosea reined his horse in so close their stirrups brushed, and the next thing he knew, his eyes were widening in surprise, awe, and wonder as Hosea stood up in his stirrups to lean in close, his lips parted. Dutch sucked in an eager breath and craned his head up, his eyes growing lidded as Hosea pressed a warm and impossibly soft kiss to his temple which stole his breath and all awareness, then a second to his cheek that stole all his structure-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As Dutch melted in his saddle, he didn’t notice how Empress kept sidling towards the river’s edge, her ears swiveling in confusion at the collective shift of weight to the right.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t even catch his boots sliding out of the stirrups.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He </span>
  <em>
    <span>did </span>
  </em>
  <span>catch how Empress’s right foreleg suddenly stumbled on a slick crag, pitching her right shoulder sharply downwards.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His body only started reacting when he was halfway down to the water.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“DUTCH!”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <b>Cold,</b>
  <span> total and violent and overwhelming, consumed his body, his mind, and his soul as the violent slam of water ripped his breath out of his lungs and stripped away every sensation and thought, leaving only the primal instinct to </span>
  <em>
    <span>survive.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Terror and adrenaline slithered through his veins as the rapids swirled and spun his body around, roaring past his flooded eardrums before punting him upwards, allowing his head to briefly breach the foamy surface. He sucked in a desperate, gasping breath as he thrashed towards the sunlight, desperately treading and fighting to keep his head above water and return to the surface every time the water dunked him down. The weight of his coat and jeans and boots made it nigh impossible as they logged in water, and it was all Dutch could do to cast a wild eye towards the shore in desperate hope for help.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A piercing neigh ripped through the air and he saw Empress’s brown bulk leap into the water after him, and Hosea’s yelling sounded like it came from - well - underwater as he caught brief glimpses of the man galloping alongside him, pale and terrified, calling out things he couldn’t understand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The rapids dunked him under again and his hip grazed a rock, sending him spinning and unable to tell up from down. Then something firm and distinctly alive bumped into him - </span>
  <em>
    <span>Empress </span>
  </em>
  <span>- and he grabbed at her, dragging himself further onto her bulk until he felt her mane, pushing himself up onto her withers until his head broke the surface of the water, where he gasped in another desperate gulp of air as Empress fought with all the strength in her muscled body to fight the rapids and keep her own head barely above the surface.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dutch coughed and gasped, coughed and gasped, then blinked the water out of his eyes to see Hosea tearing off into the distance on the back of his Walker at a full sprint, heading towards a low gentle bank further down the river. He coughed and gasped again, his mind and senses reeling, before he managed to focus on Hosea springing off his gelding’s back and running up to the bank, kneeling down and stretching out his arm.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Grab my hand!”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>With a desperate, animalistic noise, Dutch clambered over Empress’s back and then used her as a springboard back into the water, where he fought like hell to drift ever closer to that saving hand-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With a noise somewhere between a shriek and a roar, Dutch thrashed his arm out and felt Hosea’s hand snatched around his, his other hand flying out to grasp his wrist and firmly haul him onto the bank in one smooth motion.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“‘Press-”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Dutch immediately choked out, casting his gaze to his horse even as Hosea cinched him against his chest, </span>
  <em>
    <span>“Empre-!”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>With another piercing neigh, Empress thrashed and bucked and struggled until she caught footing in the shallows and sprang herself out of the river like a spooked jackrabbit, bellowing in complaint and spinning in circles, shaking out her coat. Only then did he relax.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A beat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He should be able to </span>
  <em>
    <span>feel </span>
  </em>
  <span>Hosea, shouldn’t he? And oh, shit, the man was talking.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-is fine, see? She’ll be fine, I gotta get you </span>
  <em>
    <span>warm and dry,</span>
  </em>
  <span> okay? </span>
  <em>
    <span>Shit </span>
  </em>
  <span>goddammit, you moron, you </span>
  <em>
    <span>fucking idiot-”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>His awareness faded out again as the </span>
  <em>
    <span>shivering </span>
  </em>
  <span>started.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He blinked and suddenly realized he was lying on his side in the grass as Hosea was in the process of ripping his clothes off. He summoned enough strength to weakly chuckle, and Hosea violently rolled his eyes and sharply smacked his stomach as his deft hands stripped him bare. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The cold caress of air on all the parts of his body he’d prefer not be bared to the all-seeing eye of the sky made all of his mirth shrivel and die as he weakly tried to cover himself. Hosea was instantly back by his side, covering him and swaddling him in his blanket before he frowned and then started shucking off his own coat and shirt, wrestling both onto Dutch’s arms - far too tight around the muscles of his arms and impossible to close in the front - before cinching him into the blanket again before he went staggering off to frantically pitch their tent and build a fire.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dutch’s eyes were drifting closed when Hosea snapped </span>
  <em>
    <span>“DUTCH.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mn?!” he gargled, shrinking his head into the blanket like a turtle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t go to sleep on me, dearest, okay? Piece of shit,” Hosea spat, grabbing him under his arms and dragging him into the warmth and cover of their tent, trapping the heat of the fire. Hosea ruffled his sopping mop of curls furiously enough that his skull was left vibrating even after Hosea vanished again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hosea…” he whined. All of reality seemed to tingle. </span>
  <em>
    <span>“‘Sea…?”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m here,” came that voice again, and then Hosea was back with his tin mug full of exceptionally disappointing-smelling coffee. Hosea gently set the mug down and then maneuvered him to sit up against his chest. It was only then that Dutch realized how </span>
  <em>
    <span>violently </span>
  </em>
  <span>his body was shivering, his nerves set aflame as they slowly warmed. “Here,” Hosea murmured, holding the mug up to Dutch’s trembling lips. “Sip.” Dutch numbly followed the order, sipping at the hot beverage, feeling its heat travel all the way through his mouth and down his throat into his center.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When the mug was finally empty, Hosea tossed it aside and eased Dutch down to the ground once more, his front facing the fire as Hosea molded himself against his back, clutching at him with his arms and legs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dutch allowed himself the selfish pleasure of the man’s warmth for a minute before he whispered, “Empress…?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hosea pressed a forceful kiss to his cold and clammy cheek, then patted his hip as he rose. “I’ll go take care of her,” he promised, and then crawled out of the tent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dutch shivered and trembled in his three layers and desperately longed for the blaze of heat he knew Hosea’s bare skin would be.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That was when </span>
  <em>
    <span>guilt </span>
  </em>
  <span>settled, deep and terrible, in his stomach.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>By the time Hosea finally came back ten minutes later, Dutch was curled into a ball, his head mashed down into the ground, his still-dripping hair veiling his eyes disguising the tears that leaked from their brims.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You okay?” Hosea asked quietly, his tone neutral yet warm. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dutch glanced at him. “M’s-sorry.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hosea blinked down at him for a long few seconds.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I’m</span>
  </em>
  <span> the one who kissed you into a river, you damned fool.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dutch snorted. “‘M th-the one who w’s t-too… too q-q-queer to handle a… d-damn kiss.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hosea huffed out a breath. “Maybe the universe is trying to tell me something. I go all </span>
  <em>
    <span>soft </span>
  </em>
  <span>on ya and you nearly </span>
  <em>
    <span>die.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Maybe I just shouldn’t kiss you at all no m-”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“D-D-Don’t even j-joke about that,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Dutch begged. At Hosea’s stunned, self-conscious silence, Dutch gently added, “I just… f-feel like a…” He tucked his head further down. “Feel… silly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hosea tilted his head at him, considering him for a long moment, and Dutch couldn’t help but glance at him from behind the curtain of his hair to take in the man shirtless and bathed in the soft radiant light of the sun, turning his platinum blonde hair into celestial fire and his eyes into pools of honey as light and shadow embraced the curves of his chest and muscular ridges of his sculpted torso. In that vision of light and darkness, softness and hardness, Dutch watched as all the tension in Hosea’s muscles eased away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You </span>
  <em>
    <span>are </span>
  </em>
  <span>silly,” Hosea murmured, his tone warm and reverent as a smile tugged at his face. A weak giggle slipped out of his chest. “You falling in a river ‘cause I kissed ya is probably the most you thing that could have happened. And I love you for it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dutch shivered harder as his heartbeat fluttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I… love you… too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hosea’s smile suddenly outshone the sun as he ducked his head to hide it. “God. Come here, shefele.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dutch instantly perked up as Hosea crawled across him and lowered himself to Dutch’s back, and Dutch struggled to roll over and bury himself into Hosea’s chest. It vibrated with a chuckle and then hitched into a gasp as Dutch tucked his face into the crook of Hosea’s neck and pressed their bare chests flush together. Hosea returned the gesture by wrapping Dutch securely in the hold of his limbs once more, tucking the blanket around them both.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After a long minute, Dutch felt the telltale warning sign of Hosea’s body winding itself up to </span>
  <em>
    <span>do something.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“‘Sea…?” he croaked, tensing up in preparation of whatever the hell-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hosea’s lips started assaulting his face in an assault of kisses.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dutch shrieked and </span>
  <em>
    <span>giggled </span>
  </em>
  <span>and squirmed, only for Hosea’s limbs to crush him into his grasp even harder, leaving him completely at the mercy of the man’s assault on his face and his pride and his wounded ego, dissolving them all into sweet earnest joy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And most importantly - love.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally relenting in his barrage, Dutch buried himself even further into Hosea’s front to hide from his lips, sucking in gasps and wheezing out snickers. Hosea pressed one last, heavy, reverent kiss to the top of his head, then melted around him. Dutch sweeped up a hand to weakly massage at the nape of Hosea’s neck, prompting Hosea to reach up and start massaging his scalp.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Five minutes later, they were both asleep.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>...Yeah, so, I was playing Red Dead Online with my dear friend <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/tophatcat">@TopHatCat</a> and we were riding north up the trail in Grizzlies West when my partner came over, leaned down, and smooched me twice, and the next thing I know, my friend is yelling in panic as I shake myself out of my gay trance and realize I fell straight into the whitewater rapids with my horse. My friend and I started yell-laughing as she tried to save me and my partner laughed their butt off. It was such a hilarious predicament that I had to bang out this self-indulgent fic - all thanks to the encouragement from my friend ^^ Thank you for the memory, Neve!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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